Past Forward, Vol 23 No 01 (Spring 2017)

PastForward
Providence Archives Newsletter
Sisters of Providence, Mother Joseph Province • Providence Heal th & Services
Spring 2017
Vol. 23 No. 1
Major New Photo Acquisition
From Portland Institutions
Peter Schmid
Nurses with ambulance in front of St. Vincent Hospital, Portland, ca. 1914 “There’s a note in one of
the boxes from a sister
with an Italian last name.”
Jeff Krausse, photographer/
videographer for Creative
Services for Providence in
Portland, Oregon, heaved a
carton into the U-Haul van I
had driven down from Seattle
in September of last year. I was
there to retrieve a collection of
official photography from Port-land
institutions. Jockeying the
box into position in that van,
I smiled with recognition and
told Jeff that I had no doubt
about the identity of the author
of the note. Several weeks later,
I discovered the half-sheet of
paper:
“To Whom It May Concern:
Please contact Archivist, Sisters
of Providence, before disposing
of any negatives in this file.”
Warmer weather and
beautiful spring
flowers often inspire
people to lace up their shoes or
dust off their bikes and head
outside to exercise the winter
blues away. Spring is the time
when races kick into high gear
and the annual Providence/Mail
Tribune Invitational Race in
Medford, Oregon is no excep-tion.
The humble beginnings of
the race can be traced back to
the new Health Promotion Pro-gram
at Providence Hospital,
now Providence Medford Medi-cal
Center, in 1981. The small
race took place on the last day
of National Health Week with
the goal to improve the physical
Artifact
Spotlight
Jessica Long
continued on page 3 continued on page 6
The note, dated October
12, 1972, was tucked into a box
of medium-format photograph-ic
negatives in Kraft envelopes.
Sure enough, it was signed by
Sister Rita Bergamini, then-archivist
for the former Sacred
Heart Province. Sr. Rita had just
been appointed to the new posi-tion
in May of that year, having
completed a term as provincial
secretary (for more on the his-tory
of Providence Archives,
see the Fall 2012 issue of Past
Forward on our website). The
note appears on the letterhead
of Providence Heights (Is-saquah,
Washington), where the
provincialate was then located.
The negatives in question form
just one part of three large ac-cessions
of photographic mate-rial
acquired, which provide vi-sual
documentation of the three
oldest and largest Providence
institutions in Portland, Oregon:
St. Joseph Medal
Tradition
Inside
Providence Academy
Updates
and mental health of citizens in
Jackson County. A year later, the
hospital co-sponsored the event
with a local newspaper, the Med-ford
Mail Tribune, and expanded
the purpose of the Race to
encourage family participation.
Described as the “sec-ond
largest athletic event in
Southern Oregon” in the 1984
2 Past Forward • Spring 2017
Bill Bouten was a young
laborer when he
watched his father and
Sister Peter Claver Thomas,
administrator, walking together
on the construction site of the
new East Wing of Sacred Heart
Medical Center (SHMC) in
Spokane, Washington. Later that
evening he asked his dad about
this occurrence and learned that
there was a special ceremony of
dropping religious medals into
the concrete of the building
foundation on projects that
were under the oversight of Sr.
Peter Claver.
Sr. Peter Claver adapted
a Catholic tradition that dates
back to St. Teresa of Avila
(1515-1582) who prayed to St.
Joseph and encouraged her
nuns to bury St. Joseph medals
in the ground when they needed
more land for their convents.
This custom was also practiced
by St. Andre Bessett (1845-
1937) of Montreal, who secretly
buried a St. Joseph medal on
Mount Royal where a shrine was
later built. Sister Rosalie Locati,
director of mission and values
at SHMC, points to Sr. Peter
Claver as initiating the tradition
of dropping medals in the con-crete
of Providence ministries.
According to Sr. Rosalie, “It was
probably from her own spiritu-ality
that she came up with this
idea.”
Guest Column
The St. Joseph Medal Tradition
Rene Campagna
Bill Bouten is now the
president of Bouten Construc-tion
and he, along with various
Sisters of Providence, have
continued the medal place-ment
tradition that was started
several decades ago. The ritual
occurs early in the construction
process, usually when the con-crete
of the foundation is being
poured. The workers gather
together with invited guests
and a Sister of Providence. The
concrete pumps are halted for
a moment while the medals are
dropped into place. Workers
take off their hats and bow their
heads as the sister prays for
their safety and the successful
completion of construction.
Bill describes these cer-emonies
as “very memorable
and leaving an imprint” on all
who attend. He also recalls with
humor one of the ceremonies
conducted by Sister Lillian
Deslauriers, chaplain. Usually
the ritual needs to be very brief
because the concrete pumps
are halted; however, Sr. Lillian
added extra parts that included
sprinkling of holy water and
singing. Bill was more drenched
than sprinkled and when the
“Hymn to Divine Providence”
began, he was concerned about
the concrete pump plugging up
because of the delay. Everything
turned out fine, although it
probably is the one ritual that he
won’t ever forget.
Sr. Peter Claver’s nephew,
Tim Thomas, also works for
Bouten Construction and has
been part of many medal rituals
as well. One of the most mean-ingful
parts of the ritual for him
is the prayer that is directed to-ward
the safety of the workers:
“This shows genuine care for
those who are building.”
After Sr. Peter Claver’s
death, other Sisters of Provi-dence
carried on the tradi-tion
and currently Sr. Rosalie
continues this partnership with
Bouten Construction. She
has lead several of the ritu-als,
including for Sacred Heart
Children’s Hospital, Mt. Carmel
Hospital, and most recently
for Providence Medical Park
in Spokane Valley. She collects
many of the St. Joseph medals
from the sisters when they pass
away, and supplements others
from religious supply stores. In
addition to St. Joseph, there are
a variety of other medals that
are used, including: Our Lady
of Sorrows, Sacred Heart of
Jesus, Blessed Emilie Gamelin,
the Miraculous Medal of Mary,
and the Guardian Angels.
Reflecting on the impor-tance
of the medal dropping
rituals, Sr. Rosali concludes:
“When we bless the space as
sacred, we also remind each
other that our work is sacred.”
Bill Bouten also reflects on the
meaning of this ritual: “When
we pause and everyone’s head
is bowed down, there’s nothing
like this which occurs on con-struction
projects except those
undertaken by Providence. The
entire construction team realizes
that we are not just building any
project, rather we are building
something that will carry on the
legacy of the Sisters of Provi-dence.”
Sr. Rosalie Locati with medals
Sr. Rosalie dropping a medal
into a concrete pour
Rene Campagna is director of mis-sion
integration at Providence Sacred
Heart Medical Center, Spokane
Past Forward • Spring 2017 3
Providence St. Vincent Medical
Center (founded 1875), Provi-dence
Portland Medical Center
(founded 1941), and Providence
Child Center (founded 1944).
Thus, this extraordinary
collection had been on the
Archives’ radar for decades by
the time I traveled to Portland
to retrieve the photographs. Jeff
had contacted me in December
2015, saying that it was time to
transfer the massive collection
to the Archives. And massive
it was: 83 cartons of material,
or about 125 cubic feet. Sisters
of Providence at Saint Joseph
Residence, where the Archives
are located, were treated to a
familiar sight of boxes lining the
hallway outside our offices; far
too many to put away quickly,
they awaited appraisal and sort-ing,
before material deemed
worthy of permanent retention
found a home on the shelves in
our storage area.
The collection would not
have survived without the
stewardship of the photography
staff at the institutions who rec-ognized
the value of their work
over the decades.
The collection includes
over 100 binders full of strip
negatives and transparencies
which record life at Providence
St. Vincent Medical Center
(PSVMC) from the 1970s
through 2000, including alpha-betized
portraits and work-for-hire
by outside photographers;
print files which date from the
1890s to about 2000; negative
files from Providence Port-land
Medical Center (PPMC),
1955-1990s; and hundreds of
videotapes from both medi-cal
centers and the Providence
Child Center. The negative and
print files also include Child
Center photographs. The nurs-ing
schools at both medical
centers are documented, along
with nursing services, nearly
every department from admit-ting
to surgery to housekeeping,
the first open-heart surgery
and development of the Heart
Institute under the leadership
of Dr. Albert Starr, regional
clinics, and special events such
as groundbreakings and staff
picnics. Campus developments
are recorded with aerial views,
prints and slides, and the list
goes on – the preliminary inven-tory
is 100 pages long. Many
of the photographs were used
in the institutional newsletters,
such as PSVMC’s Crescent, and
are precisely dated.
Even after my initial culling
of duplicates and items not
deemed worthy of permanent
retention, the numbers are truly
staggering: negatives, prints and
slides all add up to an estimated
total of over 790,000 photo-graphs.
The accessions form
the largest cohesive body of
photographic material in the
Archives.
Sr. Rita’s note, besides being
a fun touchstone for the cur-rent
staff of the Archives, also
captures some values of our
profession. Though of course
she could not have known when
the negatives might come to the
Archives, her note demonstrates
Sr. Rita’s role not just as a pas-sive
collector of Providence
history, but as an active cus-todian
of records who had an
interest in making sure that the
photographs would in fact end
up at our repository. The note
also implies the promise that the
Archives would provide a home
for the negatives and be treated
as historic documentation wor-thy
of preservation. It is worth
noting again that as a formal de-partment,
Providence Archives
was brand new in 1972, and
that information was not shared
instantaneously as it is today;
Sr. Rita could not keep in touch
with records-keepers by email –
she used personal visits, “snail
mail” and telephone to spread
the word about the Archives
and ensure that historic materi-als
from a vast health system
were not lost; she did not have
the luxury of simply pointing
to a website and saying, “Here’s
who we are and here’s what we
do.” Though technology has
forever changed how we com-municate,
and the way archivists
do their work, this simple note
on a half-sheet of paper deliv-ered
on its promise.
Photo Accessions
continued from page 1
Nursing staff bid farewell to the first open-heart surgery patient at Providence
Hospital, Portland, 1961. The young patient holds a “Rocky & His Friends
Cartoon Kit”
See page 4 for more photographs
4 Past Forward • Spring 2017
Pharmacy, St. Vincent Hospital, 1961. Deapartment head Conrad McCon-nell
at left; Mrs. Arlozell Brown; Henry Wong. Conrad “Mac” McConnell
was president of the Oregon Society of Hospital Pharmacists and served on the
Oregon State Board of Health prior to his untimely death in 1973
Patients and staff were delighted when Roy Rogers and his wife, actress Dale
Evans Rogers visited St. Vincent Hospital in 1959; they were in town to stage
entertainement features for the Oregon Centennial
Having fun with fruit, 2000: Providence Child Center brings children with
diasabilities and Montessori School children together for fun and learning
A Sister of Providence and nurses beside a modern ambulance, 1959. The
hospital was celebrating the Oregon Centennial; the nurse in center dons a
vintage uniform and “muffin top” cap
Photo Accession: A Few More Samples
Past Forward • Spring 2017 5
foundation of the 32 missions
inspired by her work.
Remodeling of the entry
hall included the addition of
three brick walls to memorialize
the contributions of the Hidden
family, who produced the bricks
for the building. The Hiddens
bought the building after the
school closed and have played a
noteworthy role in the acad-emy’s
preservation. Outside the
building, on the corner of E.
Evergreen Blvd. and C Street, a
wayside interpretive panel draws
the attention of passers-by.
Renovation progresses on
the roof of the building and
exterior supporting columns
and balconies to ensure that the
building meets safety standards;
Washington State appropriated
one million dollars from a sup-plemental
capital budget toward
this effort in 2016. Governor
Jay Inslee visited PAV in Octo-ber
2016 and was impressed by
FVHT’s sustainability plan for
the building, which includes its
use as a small business incuba-tor.
Currently, PAV has space
for about 65 businesses.
Since the purchase of
Providence Academy in
Vancouver, Washington
by the Fort Vancouver His-toric
Trust (FVHT) in January
2015, FVHT staff have been
busy raising funds for renova-tion
and interpretive displays
at the building, which is more
than 143 years old. Providence
Academy, Vancouver (PAV)
was the first permanent school
building in Washington Terri-tory,
opening in 1874. In 1978,
the U.S. Department of the In-terior
added the building to the
National Register of Historic
Places.
During 2016, the front
entry hall was extensively
renovated to add display panels
presenting a timeline of Sisters
of Providence activities in the
West from 1856 to the pres-ent,
as well as features on the
chapel, the ballroom, and the
bell tower. Providence Archives
staff provided text and photo-graphs
during the production
of interpretive panels. In the
entry, a new painting honors
Mother Joseph, as does an
original work of art in the shape
of a heart representing her as-sociation
with the Sacred Heart.
Thirty-two branches growing
out of the heart symbolize the
Original artwork honors
Mother Joseph of the Sacred Heart
With further fundrais-ing,
FVHT plans to add more
interpretive displays and curated
spaces to the building, including
an exhibit gallery on the ground
floor. The Trust’s proposal is to
repair the spiral staircase in the
center of the building, to create
a special space to honor Mother
Joseph, and to create dioramas
to give visitors a sense of the
school and religious life. Plan-ners
also propose to re-create
the Shrine of the Blessed Moth-er
on the academy grounds.
Providence Health and
Services maintains its close
relationship to Providence
Academy with tours for PH&S
employees throughout the year;
PH&S also lent financial sup-port
to FVHT during fundrais-ing
to purchase the building.
FVHT and Providence Archives
will continue their productive
collaboration to ensure that the
legacy of the Sisters of Provi-dence
will be represented accu-rately
for generations to come.
Supporters of FVHT can
find out how to donate to the
Providence Academy effort
here: http://fortvan.org/Sup-port/
support-the-trust.html
Providence Academy Updates
Elizabeth Russell
The remodeled entryway includes a timeline featuring research and images from
Providence Archives, at left
Providence Archives
4800 37th Ave SW
Seattle WA 98126-2793
Archivist
Loretta Zwolak Greene
Visual Resources Archivist
Peter Schmid
Associate Archivist
Elizabeth Russell
Assistant Archivist-Technical
Pam Hedquist
Artifacts Collection Cataloguer
Jessica Long
Telephone: 206.937.4600
Fax: 206.923.4001
E-mail: archives@providence.org
www.providence.org/phs/archives
Past Forward is published three
times annually. Edited by Peter
Schmid
Postage
Artifact Spotlight
continued from page 1
Providence Hospital chronicles,
the individual and team walking,
running, and biking races were
usually held in mid-May and
typically started on the hospital
grounds. The races from 1992
through 1997 are represented in
our artifact collection by seven
T-shirts and one mug. Each of
the brightly colored souvenirs
features at least one butterfly
around various logo designs
and the year the race took place
in. Two of the T-shirts sport a
cute cartoon butterfly wear-ing
a shirt, running shorts, and
tennis shoes beneath the name
“the Butterfly Run,” which
was a special children’s event
initiated on May 18, 1991. The
mug is unique among this small
collection in that it has the word
“WINNER” printed under-neath
the logo.
Supported by hundreds of
volunteers, corporate sponsors,
and positive media cover-age
throughout the years, it is
easy to see how the race was
beneficial to both the hospital
and surrounding community. By
the time the Providence/Mail
Tribune Invitational Race ended
in the late 1990’s, the event had
bloomed from a Walk-a-Thon,
Jog-a-thon, and Bike-a-thon
with a modest 350 participants
into a major community event
which repeatedly drew over
5,000 people and 3,000 regis-tered
participants. For more
inspiration to compete in races
this spring (or cheer from the
sidelines!), visit our website to
see all the cataloged Invitational
Race artifacts in the Providence
Medford Medical Center col-lection:
http://tinyurl.com/
m9p8n8x

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PastForward
Providence Archives Newsletter
Sisters of Providence, Mother Joseph Province • Providence Heal th & Services
Spring 2017
Vol. 23 No. 1
Major New Photo Acquisition
From Portland Institutions
Peter Schmid
Nurses with ambulance in front of St. Vincent Hospital, Portland, ca. 1914 “There’s a note in one of
the boxes from a sister
with an Italian last name.”
Jeff Krausse, photographer/
videographer for Creative
Services for Providence in
Portland, Oregon, heaved a
carton into the U-Haul van I
had driven down from Seattle
in September of last year. I was
there to retrieve a collection of
official photography from Port-land
institutions. Jockeying the
box into position in that van,
I smiled with recognition and
told Jeff that I had no doubt
about the identity of the author
of the note. Several weeks later,
I discovered the half-sheet of
paper:
“To Whom It May Concern:
Please contact Archivist, Sisters
of Providence, before disposing
of any negatives in this file.”
Warmer weather and
beautiful spring
flowers often inspire
people to lace up their shoes or
dust off their bikes and head
outside to exercise the winter
blues away. Spring is the time
when races kick into high gear
and the annual Providence/Mail
Tribune Invitational Race in
Medford, Oregon is no excep-tion.
The humble beginnings of
the race can be traced back to
the new Health Promotion Pro-gram
at Providence Hospital,
now Providence Medford Medi-cal
Center, in 1981. The small
race took place on the last day
of National Health Week with
the goal to improve the physical
Artifact
Spotlight
Jessica Long
continued on page 3 continued on page 6
The note, dated October
12, 1972, was tucked into a box
of medium-format photograph-ic
negatives in Kraft envelopes.
Sure enough, it was signed by
Sister Rita Bergamini, then-archivist
for the former Sacred
Heart Province. Sr. Rita had just
been appointed to the new posi-tion
in May of that year, having
completed a term as provincial
secretary (for more on the his-tory
of Providence Archives,
see the Fall 2012 issue of Past
Forward on our website). The
note appears on the letterhead
of Providence Heights (Is-saquah,
Washington), where the
provincialate was then located.
The negatives in question form
just one part of three large ac-cessions
of photographic mate-rial
acquired, which provide vi-sual
documentation of the three
oldest and largest Providence
institutions in Portland, Oregon:
St. Joseph Medal
Tradition
Inside
Providence Academy
Updates
and mental health of citizens in
Jackson County. A year later, the
hospital co-sponsored the event
with a local newspaper, the Med-ford
Mail Tribune, and expanded
the purpose of the Race to
encourage family participation.
Described as the “sec-ond
largest athletic event in
Southern Oregon” in the 1984
2 Past Forward • Spring 2017
Bill Bouten was a young
laborer when he
watched his father and
Sister Peter Claver Thomas,
administrator, walking together
on the construction site of the
new East Wing of Sacred Heart
Medical Center (SHMC) in
Spokane, Washington. Later that
evening he asked his dad about
this occurrence and learned that
there was a special ceremony of
dropping religious medals into
the concrete of the building
foundation on projects that
were under the oversight of Sr.
Peter Claver.
Sr. Peter Claver adapted
a Catholic tradition that dates
back to St. Teresa of Avila
(1515-1582) who prayed to St.
Joseph and encouraged her
nuns to bury St. Joseph medals
in the ground when they needed
more land for their convents.
This custom was also practiced
by St. Andre Bessett (1845-
1937) of Montreal, who secretly
buried a St. Joseph medal on
Mount Royal where a shrine was
later built. Sister Rosalie Locati,
director of mission and values
at SHMC, points to Sr. Peter
Claver as initiating the tradition
of dropping medals in the con-crete
of Providence ministries.
According to Sr. Rosalie, “It was
probably from her own spiritu-ality
that she came up with this
idea.”
Guest Column
The St. Joseph Medal Tradition
Rene Campagna
Bill Bouten is now the
president of Bouten Construc-tion
and he, along with various
Sisters of Providence, have
continued the medal place-ment
tradition that was started
several decades ago. The ritual
occurs early in the construction
process, usually when the con-crete
of the foundation is being
poured. The workers gather
together with invited guests
and a Sister of Providence. The
concrete pumps are halted for
a moment while the medals are
dropped into place. Workers
take off their hats and bow their
heads as the sister prays for
their safety and the successful
completion of construction.
Bill describes these cer-emonies
as “very memorable
and leaving an imprint” on all
who attend. He also recalls with
humor one of the ceremonies
conducted by Sister Lillian
Deslauriers, chaplain. Usually
the ritual needs to be very brief
because the concrete pumps
are halted; however, Sr. Lillian
added extra parts that included
sprinkling of holy water and
singing. Bill was more drenched
than sprinkled and when the
“Hymn to Divine Providence”
began, he was concerned about
the concrete pump plugging up
because of the delay. Everything
turned out fine, although it
probably is the one ritual that he
won’t ever forget.
Sr. Peter Claver’s nephew,
Tim Thomas, also works for
Bouten Construction and has
been part of many medal rituals
as well. One of the most mean-ingful
parts of the ritual for him
is the prayer that is directed to-ward
the safety of the workers:
“This shows genuine care for
those who are building.”
After Sr. Peter Claver’s
death, other Sisters of Provi-dence
carried on the tradi-tion
and currently Sr. Rosalie
continues this partnership with
Bouten Construction. She
has lead several of the ritu-als,
including for Sacred Heart
Children’s Hospital, Mt. Carmel
Hospital, and most recently
for Providence Medical Park
in Spokane Valley. She collects
many of the St. Joseph medals
from the sisters when they pass
away, and supplements others
from religious supply stores. In
addition to St. Joseph, there are
a variety of other medals that
are used, including: Our Lady
of Sorrows, Sacred Heart of
Jesus, Blessed Emilie Gamelin,
the Miraculous Medal of Mary,
and the Guardian Angels.
Reflecting on the impor-tance
of the medal dropping
rituals, Sr. Rosali concludes:
“When we bless the space as
sacred, we also remind each
other that our work is sacred.”
Bill Bouten also reflects on the
meaning of this ritual: “When
we pause and everyone’s head
is bowed down, there’s nothing
like this which occurs on con-struction
projects except those
undertaken by Providence. The
entire construction team realizes
that we are not just building any
project, rather we are building
something that will carry on the
legacy of the Sisters of Provi-dence.”
Sr. Rosalie Locati with medals
Sr. Rosalie dropping a medal
into a concrete pour
Rene Campagna is director of mis-sion
integration at Providence Sacred
Heart Medical Center, Spokane
Past Forward • Spring 2017 3
Providence St. Vincent Medical
Center (founded 1875), Provi-dence
Portland Medical Center
(founded 1941), and Providence
Child Center (founded 1944).
Thus, this extraordinary
collection had been on the
Archives’ radar for decades by
the time I traveled to Portland
to retrieve the photographs. Jeff
had contacted me in December
2015, saying that it was time to
transfer the massive collection
to the Archives. And massive
it was: 83 cartons of material,
or about 125 cubic feet. Sisters
of Providence at Saint Joseph
Residence, where the Archives
are located, were treated to a
familiar sight of boxes lining the
hallway outside our offices; far
too many to put away quickly,
they awaited appraisal and sort-ing,
before material deemed
worthy of permanent retention
found a home on the shelves in
our storage area.
The collection would not
have survived without the
stewardship of the photography
staff at the institutions who rec-ognized
the value of their work
over the decades.
The collection includes
over 100 binders full of strip
negatives and transparencies
which record life at Providence
St. Vincent Medical Center
(PSVMC) from the 1970s
through 2000, including alpha-betized
portraits and work-for-hire
by outside photographers;
print files which date from the
1890s to about 2000; negative
files from Providence Port-land
Medical Center (PPMC),
1955-1990s; and hundreds of
videotapes from both medi-cal
centers and the Providence
Child Center. The negative and
print files also include Child
Center photographs. The nurs-ing
schools at both medical
centers are documented, along
with nursing services, nearly
every department from admit-ting
to surgery to housekeeping,
the first open-heart surgery
and development of the Heart
Institute under the leadership
of Dr. Albert Starr, regional
clinics, and special events such
as groundbreakings and staff
picnics. Campus developments
are recorded with aerial views,
prints and slides, and the list
goes on – the preliminary inven-tory
is 100 pages long. Many
of the photographs were used
in the institutional newsletters,
such as PSVMC’s Crescent, and
are precisely dated.
Even after my initial culling
of duplicates and items not
deemed worthy of permanent
retention, the numbers are truly
staggering: negatives, prints and
slides all add up to an estimated
total of over 790,000 photo-graphs.
The accessions form
the largest cohesive body of
photographic material in the
Archives.
Sr. Rita’s note, besides being
a fun touchstone for the cur-rent
staff of the Archives, also
captures some values of our
profession. Though of course
she could not have known when
the negatives might come to the
Archives, her note demonstrates
Sr. Rita’s role not just as a pas-sive
collector of Providence
history, but as an active cus-todian
of records who had an
interest in making sure that the
photographs would in fact end
up at our repository. The note
also implies the promise that the
Archives would provide a home
for the negatives and be treated
as historic documentation wor-thy
of preservation. It is worth
noting again that as a formal de-partment,
Providence Archives
was brand new in 1972, and
that information was not shared
instantaneously as it is today;
Sr. Rita could not keep in touch
with records-keepers by email –
she used personal visits, “snail
mail” and telephone to spread
the word about the Archives
and ensure that historic materi-als
from a vast health system
were not lost; she did not have
the luxury of simply pointing
to a website and saying, “Here’s
who we are and here’s what we
do.” Though technology has
forever changed how we com-municate,
and the way archivists
do their work, this simple note
on a half-sheet of paper deliv-ered
on its promise.
Photo Accessions
continued from page 1
Nursing staff bid farewell to the first open-heart surgery patient at Providence
Hospital, Portland, 1961. The young patient holds a “Rocky & His Friends
Cartoon Kit”
See page 4 for more photographs
4 Past Forward • Spring 2017
Pharmacy, St. Vincent Hospital, 1961. Deapartment head Conrad McCon-nell
at left; Mrs. Arlozell Brown; Henry Wong. Conrad “Mac” McConnell
was president of the Oregon Society of Hospital Pharmacists and served on the
Oregon State Board of Health prior to his untimely death in 1973
Patients and staff were delighted when Roy Rogers and his wife, actress Dale
Evans Rogers visited St. Vincent Hospital in 1959; they were in town to stage
entertainement features for the Oregon Centennial
Having fun with fruit, 2000: Providence Child Center brings children with
diasabilities and Montessori School children together for fun and learning
A Sister of Providence and nurses beside a modern ambulance, 1959. The
hospital was celebrating the Oregon Centennial; the nurse in center dons a
vintage uniform and “muffin top” cap
Photo Accession: A Few More Samples
Past Forward • Spring 2017 5
foundation of the 32 missions
inspired by her work.
Remodeling of the entry
hall included the addition of
three brick walls to memorialize
the contributions of the Hidden
family, who produced the bricks
for the building. The Hiddens
bought the building after the
school closed and have played a
noteworthy role in the acad-emy’s
preservation. Outside the
building, on the corner of E.
Evergreen Blvd. and C Street, a
wayside interpretive panel draws
the attention of passers-by.
Renovation progresses on
the roof of the building and
exterior supporting columns
and balconies to ensure that the
building meets safety standards;
Washington State appropriated
one million dollars from a sup-plemental
capital budget toward
this effort in 2016. Governor
Jay Inslee visited PAV in Octo-ber
2016 and was impressed by
FVHT’s sustainability plan for
the building, which includes its
use as a small business incuba-tor.
Currently, PAV has space
for about 65 businesses.
Since the purchase of
Providence Academy in
Vancouver, Washington
by the Fort Vancouver His-toric
Trust (FVHT) in January
2015, FVHT staff have been
busy raising funds for renova-tion
and interpretive displays
at the building, which is more
than 143 years old. Providence
Academy, Vancouver (PAV)
was the first permanent school
building in Washington Terri-tory,
opening in 1874. In 1978,
the U.S. Department of the In-terior
added the building to the
National Register of Historic
Places.
During 2016, the front
entry hall was extensively
renovated to add display panels
presenting a timeline of Sisters
of Providence activities in the
West from 1856 to the pres-ent,
as well as features on the
chapel, the ballroom, and the
bell tower. Providence Archives
staff provided text and photo-graphs
during the production
of interpretive panels. In the
entry, a new painting honors
Mother Joseph, as does an
original work of art in the shape
of a heart representing her as-sociation
with the Sacred Heart.
Thirty-two branches growing
out of the heart symbolize the
Original artwork honors
Mother Joseph of the Sacred Heart
With further fundrais-ing,
FVHT plans to add more
interpretive displays and curated
spaces to the building, including
an exhibit gallery on the ground
floor. The Trust’s proposal is to
repair the spiral staircase in the
center of the building, to create
a special space to honor Mother
Joseph, and to create dioramas
to give visitors a sense of the
school and religious life. Plan-ners
also propose to re-create
the Shrine of the Blessed Moth-er
on the academy grounds.
Providence Health and
Services maintains its close
relationship to Providence
Academy with tours for PH&S
employees throughout the year;
PH&S also lent financial sup-port
to FVHT during fundrais-ing
to purchase the building.
FVHT and Providence Archives
will continue their productive
collaboration to ensure that the
legacy of the Sisters of Provi-dence
will be represented accu-rately
for generations to come.
Supporters of FVHT can
find out how to donate to the
Providence Academy effort
here: http://fortvan.org/Sup-port/
support-the-trust.html
Providence Academy Updates
Elizabeth Russell
The remodeled entryway includes a timeline featuring research and images from
Providence Archives, at left
Providence Archives
4800 37th Ave SW
Seattle WA 98126-2793
Archivist
Loretta Zwolak Greene
Visual Resources Archivist
Peter Schmid
Associate Archivist
Elizabeth Russell
Assistant Archivist-Technical
Pam Hedquist
Artifacts Collection Cataloguer
Jessica Long
Telephone: 206.937.4600
Fax: 206.923.4001
E-mail: archives@providence.org
www.providence.org/phs/archives
Past Forward is published three
times annually. Edited by Peter
Schmid
Postage
Artifact Spotlight
continued from page 1
Providence Hospital chronicles,
the individual and team walking,
running, and biking races were
usually held in mid-May and
typically started on the hospital
grounds. The races from 1992
through 1997 are represented in
our artifact collection by seven
T-shirts and one mug. Each of
the brightly colored souvenirs
features at least one butterfly
around various logo designs
and the year the race took place
in. Two of the T-shirts sport a
cute cartoon butterfly wear-ing
a shirt, running shorts, and
tennis shoes beneath the name
“the Butterfly Run,” which
was a special children’s event
initiated on May 18, 1991. The
mug is unique among this small
collection in that it has the word
“WINNER” printed under-neath
the logo.
Supported by hundreds of
volunteers, corporate sponsors,
and positive media cover-age
throughout the years, it is
easy to see how the race was
beneficial to both the hospital
and surrounding community. By
the time the Providence/Mail
Tribune Invitational Race ended
in the late 1990’s, the event had
bloomed from a Walk-a-Thon,
Jog-a-thon, and Bike-a-thon
with a modest 350 participants
into a major community event
which repeatedly drew over
5,000 people and 3,000 regis-tered
participants. For more
inspiration to compete in races
this spring (or cheer from the
sidelines!), visit our website to
see all the cataloged Invitational
Race artifacts in the Providence
Medford Medical Center col-lection:
http://tinyurl.com/
m9p8n8x